Fishing and the Virgin Mary

My trip is half way over already but I am a little behind on sharing my adventures. So Im gonna try and share two trips in one. The second weekend were here everyone went over to Javiers sisters house because we were going to go fishing and b-b-que at the lake. None of the girls in the family wanted to go fishing so I was the only one out there on the lake with the rest of the guys. I dont really mind being the only girl I am used to it, I always grew up around boys in my family and I used to go fishing with Javi back home in the states. So we started our adventures early in the morning without any fishing rods?  I did not know how this was going to work but I was along for the ride either way.

    

                                                                                    Turns out Javiers brother in law had this huge net with little weights tied to the bottom of it. They wrapped the top of the net around their shoulders and grabbed the bottom of the net, swinging it around they turned and let it go. It was supposed to land in the water in a circle and they had to pull it slowly back, but they did not really know what they were doing. LOL. It was a pretty funny day watching these four boys try and figure it out though.

By the end of the day they had only caught four little baby fish and a canoe. Turns out there was a hole in the bottom of one and they pulled it out of the water. We cooked the little fish, but Javiers mother took some meat, just in case they did not catch anything. Thank God! So the rest of the night turned out great eating good and spending time with the family.

This last weekend Javiers Neice and her husband asked if we wanted to walk up some mountian to where the Virgin Mary was. It was like a little memorial. I said sure, as usual, little did I know how big the mountain would be and what I would be getting my self into. When we drove to the location I thought, oh this will not be that bad. Wrong Answer, Again. We parked the car in some ladys house at the bottom of the hill and before we even started walking up the mountain we had to walk through all the corn fields and cactus to get there. When we finally made it to the mountain I was already starting to get tired and thought there was no way I was going to make it.

One pic from the top of the Moutain

I kept walking anyway and had to make many stops on the way up to catch my breath, I have bad allergy problems so I had to take lots of tissue with me. I was blowing my nose all the way up, hence having to stop so many times to catch my breath. Javier kept telling me to breath through my nose and try to control my breathing. Well duh!! If I could I would. What a big help he was. I finally made it up the mountain an hour later and was happy I did not say anything at the bottom of the mountain and kept walking.  It was a beautiful view and it was something I would have never thought of doing before. There was many candles around the Virgin Mary and photos of so many people that had traveled there to ask for help. Javiers neice poured water over the top rock around the memorial and there was a faint picture in the rock of the Virgin Mary. It was really cool to experience and I will never forget it. And thank God the trip down the mountain was so much easier and faster.  

I am having a little trouble loading my pictures from the mountain so I will have to share the rest of them later. Until then.

Costillos

           

  I have really been enjoying myself here with Javier and his family and getting to know some of the winter traditions.The first week we arrived Javiers family took me to what is called a Costillo, it is kind of like a carnival / Festival. There is one held in each of the small towns her in Jalisco. We had already missed the one that was held here in our town so we went over to Michoacan to see my first Costillo. There is a concert held in the town center with games, food and drinks. At around 12 they start setting off these huge fire works, they are made in the shapes of hearts, animals, religious pieces and they are constructed on top of eachother and rotate around. It was really exciting and fun to see, this only happens once a year and I am glad I was here to witness it. We had some tacos, a few drinks, and enjoyed time with the family. Next visit we are off to the river to try and catch some fish!!

Javier, me, Neice Lupita and her husband, and Nephew Eduardo

Just a few pix to start

Lucky n Cami, troopers, half way through the trip.

Pix of flag in Tj.

Beautiful sunset driving some friends around in Tj.

I dont remember where this was but thought it was pretty.

This was a sunrise this time.

Finally we have arrived

It has been a long trip getting here, but we have arrived me, javier, and the two perros. I could not believe that I was with Javier again, I could finally hug and kiss him whenever I wanted after 8 months apart. I can finally relax a little and enjoy the 6 wks I will be spending here. But anywho let me tell you a little bit about our journey.

It felt like everything that could happen, did, to keep us from traveling. On the 31st of Dec I took our blazer that we bought to travel and began my journey to TJ. After  I arrived we took our paperwork for the car in so that we could register it here in mexico under my suegros name. Well because of the long weekend they said that it would not be ready until monday evening  around 5. So I guess I am spending the weekend in Tijuana with all my suitcases and the two dogs.

Luckily Javiers family has friends that live in TJ and they said that we could stay with them unitl the paperwork was ready. We made it through the weekend and went to get the papers monday evening and guess what? It was not going to be ready until tuesday evening! So we wait another day pack up our stuff tuesday night and began our journey 4 am wed. Within the first 4 hours we lost some of our luggage that was tied to the top of the truck. We had to pull over and Javier had to get all the bags and tie them up again. All we could do was laugh though, we knew we had a jlong journey ahead of us and we would have to make the best of it. We drove 14 hours that day and finally found a decent hotel in a town called Navajoa. 4 am thursday we were on the road again we got a little lost in Guadalajara because Javier missed our exit from the toll roads. It took us 2 and a half hours longer than it should have to get to his house but we finally arrived at 9pm.
Everyone was worried about us traveling through Mexico especially at night. It was really not as bad as I thought it would be though. We took toll roads almost all the way down here. So the gas and the toll costs really made a dent in our savings but it was safer and we were more comfortable. It took about 28 hours total but we made it fun and tried not to stop so much. When we finally arrived my brother in law said that his internet was down and that it would not be up until tuesday. I started having withdrawls from my blogs and all the others that I enjoy reading everyday. I am glad that I am back though, cant wait to catch up on everyones posts. Oh and I will try and get some pictures up of our trip also.